You may have been aware that this week was, and technically still is, Golden Week here in Japan, but did you know that it’s Condom Day today?

And the frisky business doesn’t end there. It may be pure coincidence, but there are various anniversaries in May that happen to be related to love relationships in one way or another, although some of these special days appear to be slightly odd – apparently you could risk losing your life if you had sex on one of these days! Read on to find out when!

It’s a familiar coming-of-age scenario for many a young man. Things with the girlfriend are progressing well and it’s time to round third into the home plate. However, there are still condoms to get. How do you confront the judgmental gaze of the minimum wage cashier who in reality couldn’t care less what you’re up to?

One young Taiwanese lad at the tender age of 43 faced with this dilemma opted to steal a box of condoms rather than deal with the awkwardness of buying them legally, and as such has become international news.

Yes, you read the title correctly: while Americans are stocking their shopping carts with presents for their friends and family, Japanese shoppers are fighting over the last box of Mega Big Boys.

Okay, that may be slightly exaggerated, but according to JEX Condoms, sales of condoms in Japan increase by roughly 8% around the winter holidays, the bulk of which is thought to occur before or during Christmas Eve.

But why? Do Japanese people have nothing better to stuff their stockings with? Not quite, and to understand why condoms sell so well on the holiest of nights, we need to take a look at how the holiday is celebrated by many people in the country.

We’re sure we all have things that we’d rather our parents didn’t see. That folder within a folder within a folder on the computer titled “schoolwork” that isn’t really anything of the sort; that moustache waxing kit at the back of the drawer; the small collection of letters penned by an old love…

But a parents discovering – and then returning – a condom is perhaps one of the worst experiences a young man or women living at home can have.

Spare a thought, then, for the poor chap who discovered this misplaced condom along with a note from his mother waiting for him when he returned home one evening.